






























































































































i 


s. 


SOMETHING 

ABOUT SOAP. 


' l ^~y :o .A6JAX 

. y ~>P yVA 

1/ - ; ' , , ""7 a 

PROCTER & GAMBLE, 

Cincinnati, U. S. A. 


Copyright, 1881, by Procter & Gamble. 



Prfcss of 

Francis Hart & Co. 
New-York. 


SOMETHING ABOUT SOAP. 



The old folks who were “ raised ” in the 
country will at once recognize the scene so 
cleverly depicted above. It is the family soap- 
making—something which is almost a thing 
of the past. Home-made soap has gone with 
home-made candles. The only good feature 
about it was that the housekeeper “knew what 
it was made of.” It was rarely a success; it 
was either a soft, “ putty-like,” greasy mass, 
that had no effect, as far as cleansing goes, 
or else it was so strong with lye that it red¬ 
dened and burned the skin in using it, 
and undoubtedly was as responsible for the 
holes in clothing as the actual wear, for the 
over-strong lye attacks the fiber. The mod¬ 
ern housewife buys her soap ready-made. 
She generally buys a certain kind, either be¬ 
cause it looks attractive, smells nice, or 
seems cheap; but, generally, because the 


grocer recommends it. Why he should 
recommend one kind more than another 
may be laid to the score of profit—“ that 
which pays best, sell most of” is his motto. 
The reason the grocer does not recommend 
soap that has lasting qualities is be¬ 
cause his customers would use less soap, 
so would not patronize him so often. She 
should use her own judgment, remembering 
that “ the best is the cheapest ” ; for, next to 
our eating, drinking, and clothing, soap is 
the most important of all the thousand-and- 
one things that go to make up the sum 
of our every-day life. That the public 
may know something about soap-making, 
this little book is written, in a plain, untech- 
nical, and, it is hoped, interesting manner, 
aided by a series of engravings, illustra¬ 
tive of the process of manufacture used by 










4 


SOMETHING ABOUT SOAP. 



the well-known firm of Procter & Gam¬ 
ble, Cincinnati. 

The earliest mention of soap—outside the 
Bible—is by Pliny the Elder, twenty-three 


soap still in a state of preservation. To the 
Germans must be given the credit of first 
manufacturing both hardi and soft varieties 
of soap, hence the propriety of Procter & 

Gamble calling their 
famous laundry soap 
“Mottled German Soap,” 
or, more properly speak¬ 
ing, the “Original Mot¬ 
tled German Soap.” 

“ Pure hard soap is a 
chemical combination of 
soda and fat (oil), min¬ 
gled under conditions 
favorable to their union.” 
That it may be under¬ 


years after Christ. He says that soap made 
of tallow and wood-ashes was the invention 
of the Gauls. The Romans considered soap 
to be of Celtic invention. The inhabitants 
of Pompeii possessed at least one complete 
soap-boiling establishment, which, when 
' brought to view after having been buried 
more than 1700 years, was found to contain 


stood just what constitutes “ favorable con¬ 
ditions,” and how necessary it is to have an 


THE DIGESTER. 






















































































































































































































SOMETHING ABOUT SOAP. 


S' * 


5 



intelligent supervision over every detail of 
the process, we shall farther along describe 
the methods pursued in making the best 
known hard soap. 

In soap-making, as in everything else, 
the best results are obtained only by the 
use of the best materials and most approved 
methods, combined with long and intelli¬ 
gent experience. Now for the materials. 
The basis for all soaps is either Grease, 
Tallow, or Oil,—grease being the least de¬ 
sirable, as it does not yield as good soap 
as tallow or oil. The latter is far superior to 
either of the other two. Grease is made 
from the fat of animals that have died, the 
refuse of kitchens, and other offal. Tallow 
is made from the fresh fat of sheep and 
cattle, so is not so objectionable or danger¬ 
ous as grease. Oils suitable for soap are 
Palm, Cocoa-nut, Cotton-seed, Olive, and 
Saponified Red Oil, the latter being espe¬ 
cially desirable for laundry soap, as strength 
and durability are required. Genuine 
Mottled German Soap is made of Saponi¬ 
fied Red Oil only, which is superior to 
other “ soapers’ ” oils inasmuch as it is 
what is known as a chemically “ free ” oil; 
it readily takes hold of the alkali, and the 
result is a complete saponification, so a 
complete soap. It is hard even when fresh ; 
there is little or no loss in weight by 
shrinkage, so the purchaser receives the 
full amount of soap for his money: that is, 


he does not pay for water at the price of soap. 
To the vast manufactory of Procter & Gam¬ 
ble, in Cincinnati, we go. for our illustra¬ 
tions and our description of their process, 
for there the most recent and most perfect 
of scientific and mechanical appliances are 
kept at work, and the latest of scientific 
research are constantly utilized. Every step 
of the process, from the time the tallow 
from which the Red Oil is made is de¬ 
posited in the emptying room until the 
soap is packed in boxes and sent to all 
parts of the country, is full either of interest 
to the student or entertainment to the 
simply curious. 

As before mentioned, this firm make their 
Mottled German Soap of Saponified Red 
Oil. That the reader may know what this oil 
is, we must first mention, by way of expla¬ 
nation, that Procter & Gamble are the 
largest manufacturers of candles in the 
country, and they obtain their materials for 
making candles from their process of mak¬ 
ing the oil for their soap. The combi¬ 
nation of the two industries is essential to 
the successful and economical production 
of both. The first step is the saponifying of 


COOLING-ROOM. 



































































6 


SOMETHING ABOUT SOAP. 



COLD 

the tallow; it is accomplished in an appa¬ 
ratus called, in chandlers’ parlance, the 
“ digester” (of which there are three in opera¬ 
tion, although, for convenience, but one is 
shown in the illustration). It consists of a 
copper cylinder, inclosed within an iron 
one, and a pump arranged to raise the con¬ 
tents of the inner cylinder from the bottom 
to the top. Into this the tallow, which has 
been melted out of the barrels by steam, is 
run, and is mixed with lime and water. This 
mixture is kept up to the intense heat of six 
hundred degrees Fahrenheit by steam, which 
is let into the outer cylinder at a pressure of 
two hundred and fifty pounds to the square 
inch. The water, being the heavier, sinks to 
the bottom of the copper cylinder, whence 
it is pumped and thrown on a perforated 
plate above the tallow, that it may fall 
through it in many little streams. This 


PRESSING. 

agitation is kept up for eight or nine hours, 
after which it is found that the lime 
has united with the tallow and formed 
a lime soap, while the water has consorted 
with the impurities, etc. The intense heat 
to which the tallow is subjected, and the 
continuous washing it undergoes, destroy 
and remove any impurities liable to produce 
disease there may be- in the tallow, which of 
itself gives the Procter & Gamble Soap an 
immense advantage over all others, for it 
insures to the consumer a soap absolutely 
pure. No other firm exercises the same 
amount of care in preparing the “ stock ” for 
the boiling-kettles, for the ordinary method 
is to empty the tallow or grease, from which 
none of the impurities have been removed, 
direct into the boiling-kettles, and the process 
of manufacture usually pursued is such as to 
simply warm into life any germs of disease 
























































































MAKING LYE, 



























































































































































































8 


SOMETHING ABOUT SOAP. 


there ??iay be in the grease or tallow. The 
contents of the cylinder, after being allowed 
to remain at rest for a time, separate into 
two strata, the lime soap on top, the impuri¬ 
ties and water below. These are blown off 
into separate vats by the power of steam. 
The cooling of the lime soap is a slow proc¬ 
ess. It is run into shallow pans, lined with 
enamel, and permitted to remain in a warm 
room two or three days. When it becomes 


lower level than the first tank. The hot 
soda solution falls through the tray into the 
lower tank, carrying the lime with it. After 
being agitated, the lime settles to the bot¬ 
tom, carrying with it the carbonic acid, and 
all impurities. After being allowed to set¬ 
tle sufficiently the clear liquor, which 
is lye in its purest form, is drawn off into the 
soap-kettles, leaving the lime, etc., in the 
tank. It will be seen that everything that 



BOILING. 

has thus far gone into the scap-kettle has 
been thoroughly purified and cleansed , all 
of which Procter & Gamble have found 
necessary to have done under their own 
supervision to insure having it honestly 
performed, on the principle : “If you want 
anything well done, you must do it your¬ 
self.’’ 

The soap-kettles are large cylindrical ves¬ 
sels made of boiler-iron, open at the top and 
having a conical bottom. They are heated 
by means of iron steam-pipes coiled into an 
inverted cone to correspond with the shape 
of the bottom. Another coil or single ring 
of steam-pipes is placed near the bottom 
and perforated with numerous holes; this 
latteris termed the“ open steam ” or “ blow ” 
pipe, and the former the “ close steam- 
pipe.” They are used at different stages of 
the boiling, to effect a thorough mingling and 
heating of the materials. There are pipes 


hard, the cakes are emptied 
from the pans, and wrapped 
in heavy woolen cloths, and 
piled into hydraulic presses 
between iron plates, and the 
pressure applied. A dark 
oil gushes from the woolen, pours over the 
edges of the plates, and is caught by troughs 
conveniently arranged, from which it is con¬ 
ducted by iron pipes to the soap-kettles. 
This oil is known in commerce as Sa¬ 
ponified Red Oil. The preparation and 
purifying of the lye by this firm is one of 
the most thorough known, insuring the 
removal of all foreign and deleterious mat¬ 
ter. The highest grade of Carbonate of 
Soda~ is imported by them direct from Eng¬ 
land, from which they completely remove the 
carbonic acid by placing a large quantity 
in an immense iron tank filled with boil¬ 
ing water, and the entire mass kept hot and 
agitated by jets of steam. When the solu¬ 
tion is complete, the hot liquor is drawn out 
upon a shallow iron tray having a perforated 
bottom. This tray contains a certain quan¬ 
tity of lime, and is suspended within and 
near the top of an iron tank, placed on a 



































SOMETHING ABOUT SOAP. 


9 


leading from the bottom of the kettle for the 
discharge of the “ spent lye,” and a large 
pipe near the bottom, through which the 
finished soap is drawn directly into the cool¬ 
ing-frames, as shown in the illustration (page 


as it descends through it, it becomes dis¬ 
solved in the water. This heavy solution pre¬ 
cipitates to the bottom of the kettle, while the 
lighter soap, insoluble in salt water, floats 
above. This salt water, or “ spent lye ” as it 



DIPPING. 


io). A part of the side of the kettles at the top 
is arranged to be removed, to facilitate “dip¬ 
ping ” the soap into frames. This method 
of emptying the kettles is adapted to thick 
soaps which cannot be conveniently drawn 
from the bottom. 

Now for the boiling process. A quan¬ 
tity of the lye, prepared as described, is 
allowed to run into the soap-kettle, and 
when heated by steam is ready to combine 
with the oil, which is allowed to flow grad¬ 
ually upon the lye; more lye is added from 
time to time, as may be required, until, the 
oil having combined with the soda, the 
whole has become a uniform mass of neutral 
or weak soap, dissolved in the water which 
had contained the soda. Salt is then freely 
scattered over the surface of the soap, and 


is termed, is drawn off below. Repeated 
additions of lye, as mentioned before, are 
made, and after boiling and salting out, are 
drawn off, until the soap has become suffi¬ 
ciently strong, or, in other words, completely 
saponified. It is then purified by running 
into it a quantity of water, which has the ef¬ 
fect of thinning it, so that any chance impuri¬ 
ties and any excess of lye, after sufficient 
time has elapsed for settling, may be drawn 
from the bottom of the kettle, a very com¬ 
plete and distinct separation having been ef¬ 
fected. The value of tew siting out the surplus 
or “ free ” lye cat mot he overestimated , for the 
free lye would attack the fiber directly, and 
thus burn or rot the clothing; it will also 
change the color and make white goods 
yellow, and burn and redden the hands. 

J 7 

































































IO 


SOMETHING ABOUT SOAR 



After boiling for a period longer, to evap¬ 
orate the surplus water, the soap is then 
ready to be dipped over the side of the 
kettle or drawn from the bottom through a 
large pipe closed by a valve easily moved 
by a wheel. The cooling-frames into which 
the soap is thus conveyed are iron boxes 
with wooden bottoms. These bottoms are 
provided with wheels, that the frame may 
be drawn to the proper place for filling, or 
cooling, or cutting. When the soap is suf¬ 
ficiently cool (from four to six days), it is 


FILLING THE FRAMES. 

“ stripped,” that is, the bolts which clamped 
the sides against the ends are withdrawn, 
and the sides and ends removed, leaving the 
cooled solid soap standing upon the bot¬ 
tom. It is now ready for the cutting- 
machine. The cutting is done by wires 
drawn through the soap horizontally. This 
changes it into slabs the width and length 
of the frame and two or more inches thick. 
These slabs are placed, five at once, upon 


a “barring” table, where, by means of a 
small cog-wheel made to revolve under 
a rack, the slabs are forced against and 
between wires kept taut, and are thus 
divided into long bars. By a slight change 
of a shaft, the soap-cutter is enabled to 
push the long bars sidewise against another 
set of wires, which divide them into short or 
one-pound bars. The wires are set with per¬ 
fect exactness, so that all the bars are of the 
same size and weight—one pound each. 
After being stamped by hand, the soap is 
packed into boxes that have the 
weight of the box marked on each. 
Then each box of soap is weighed, 
and the exact net weight is marked 
upon every box, and the soap is 
now ready for market. It will be 
seen that the cutting, stamping, and 
packing are simple and inexpen¬ 
sive ; the useless expense of press¬ 
ing into fanciful shapes and wrap¬ 
ping in bright-colored papers is 
saved. The public pay many thou¬ 
sands of dollars every year for 
pressing and wrapping soap, that 
is of no benefit to the soap or to 
them; in fact, it is done in most 
cases to make a poor article look 
attractive and more salable—the 
old-fashioned square-cut bars are 
the most economical.. 

One leaves the works of Procter 
& Gamble fully impressed with the 
fact that they know the wisdom and 
value of “ What is worth doing at 
all is worth doing well.” The thor¬ 
oughness with which everything is 
done in the production of their 
Mottled German Soap shows care¬ 
ful and intelligent attention of 
skillful men, and the soap itself, 
being made by the most approved 
method and of the best of materials, thor¬ 
oughly refined under their own supervision, 
is the very perfection of laundry soap; 
which water cannot penetrate and weaken, 
so that the last small piece is as good as a 
new bar; there are no acids or excess of 
alkali to injure the skin or clothing;—in 
short, it is what all laundry soap should be— 
effective , durable , and economical. 

A good article that has achieved success 
















































































































































































SOMETHING ABOUT SOAP. 


11 


is always imitated, so it is but natural 
that there should be many imitations of 
Procter & Gamble’s soap. The so-called 
Mottled German soaps are made principally 
of grease, though some contain a small per¬ 
centage of red oil, simply as an excuse for 
calling them “ red oil soaps.” They owe their 
mottled appearance to the impurities which 


them. The effect of this is that the excess 
of soda will eat or rot anything that has 
been washed with the soap. 

The reader can form no idea of the vast 
number of compounds that are given to the 
public under the name of soap. Fully nine- 
tenths is not what the buyer has a right 
to expect. The materials used are full of 



STRIPPING. 


are suspended in the soap; they are more or 
less offensive in odor on account of being 
made of grease. The process by which many 
of these so-called Mottled German soaps 
are made is known as the “ cold made ” 
method, that is, the grease and lye are 
mingled together at the very moderate tem¬ 
perature of no deg. Fahrenheit. There is 
some chemical action, but the result is strong 
in alkali, and at the same time greasy to the 
touch, and will not produce an abundant 
lather; the alkali not being thoroughly com¬ 
bined, but “ free” to a great extent, will 
attack the fiber and burn the skin . Water 
will easily penetrate them, weaken, the 
alkali, it being “ free,” and thus render the 
compound a greasy, putty-like mass. There 
are many soaps of a pale straw-color, very 
clear about the edges, and having the ap¬ 
pearance of being made of wax. They are 
really very attractive in appearance, much 
more so than Mottled German Soap, which 
is, it is true, “ homely but honest.” Most 
of these clear soaps are made of tallow, and 
contain a large percentage of rosin and 
water. They shrink as they grow older, so, 
in order to preserve their shape, a consider¬ 
able quantity .of sal-soda is incorporated in 


impurities, and are too often made of de¬ 
cayed and putrid matter. Chemical science 
has shown how the noxious smells may be 
prevented, by the use of acids, etc., and by 
a plentiful addition of rosin to cheapen them, 
and perfume to hide the natural odor, they 
are passed out upon the unsuspecting pur¬ 
chaser. Fancy having your handkerchiefs, 
napkins, towels, and clothing washed with 
these compounds, yet there are many who 
will pay from ten to seventy-five cents for a 
small cake of toilet soap, but think any¬ 
thing is good enough for the laundry. A. 
little more attention to the soap used in the 
laundry would insure greater healthfulness. 
When the pores of the skin are open by 
perspiration, the condition is favorable to 
absorbing into the system any impurities in 
the soap which the laundress may have failed 
to thoroughly rinse out of the garment, 
owing to the greasy and sticky condition of 
the soap used. Cases of fevers and diphtheria 
have frequently been traced to the use of soaps 
made of unfit materials, and cases of skin 
diseases without number to the same cause. 

Not content with using poor materials, 
many soap-makers use what are known 
as “ make-weights ”; these are for the pur- 






















































12 


SOMETHING ABOUT SOAP. 



pose of increasing the profit of the manu¬ 
facturer, without equivalent value to the 
consumer. The principal “ make-weight ” 
is marble dust, which costs but sixteen dol¬ 
lars per ton, or less than one cent per 
pound, so it is easy to see that the profit of 


enable the manufacturer to sell water at the 
price of soap. A large volume might be 
written upon the adulteration of soap alone, 


CUTTING AND PACKING. 


but the brief description of soaps given in this 
little book is sufficient to enable the intelli¬ 
gent buyer to discriminate in favor of the best. 

Remember, “ the best is the cheapest.” 
Economy of time and money, and relief from 
much of the drudgery of washing, are in¬ 
sured to all who use honestly made soap. 


PROCTER&GAMBLE 



the soap-maker is greatly increased; for 
with three-quarters of a pound of soap a 
quarter of a pound of marble dust may be 
incorporated, and the compound sold as a 
pound of soap. Another adulterant is the 
“ magnesia drier,” which, in addition to 
being a “make-weight,” will help retain a 
large amount of water in the soap, and thus 


FAC-SIMILE OF STAMP USED ON THE GENUINE MOTTLED GERMAN SOAP. 






























































































































































































